18 June 2007 :

Supreme Court, in 5-4 vote, restores death sentence in Washington murder case.
Reversing the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals the justices support a trial judge's decision to exclude a juror who had qualms about the death penalty.
In 1991, Cal Coburn Brown carjacked 21-year-old Holly Washa. He held her hostage and raped and tortured the girl before killing her. - Brown, 47, turned himself in after he raped and tried to kill another woman in California. He admitted to both crimes. In 1993, he was convicted and sentenced to death by a King County jury.
But on Decembre 5, 2005, the 9th Circuit overturned his death sentence on the grounds that the trial judge had wrongly excluded a juror who expressed qualms about capital punishment. In the case of the juror in question, a man identified as "Juror Z," the judges found that although he agreed that such mitigating factors as childhood trauma or mental illness could be taken into account when deciding a death case, he had "expressed no antipathy toward the death penalty" and had been removed from the panel unfairly.
Today Justice Anthony Kennedy said the appeals court should have deferred to the trial judge.
"But where, as here, there is lengthy questioning of a prospective juror and the trial court has supervised a diligent and thoughtful (examination), the trial court has broad discretion," Kennedy wrote for the majority. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas joined the opinion.
Justice John Paul Stevens, reading a strong dissent from the bench, said the court wiped away earlier decisions that allow death penalty opponents to sit on juries in capital cases, provided they demonstrate they can set aside their beliefs and follow the law.
Justices Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and David Souter also dissented.